The Fully Bloomed Cradle Gazes at You
—Shwaaa! Cold raindrops poured through the torn ceiling gash. The ferocious holy light that had filled the room still lingered as scorching residual heat, sending steam wafting through the air. Yet the chill creeping up Telliel's spine grew ever stronger.
"Saintess. Step aside."
Telliel's clear voice cracked faintly with suppressed shock.
"You're all being deceived by something right now. That's no dog. It's some unknowable, ominous, alien thing wearing a dog's skin!"
The bluish blade aimed for the beast's scruff.
Elia looked puzzled as she tried to stop Telliel. "Angel? Why are you doing this?"
In that tense, murderous standoff, a whiny voice suddenly piped up.
"Uuu... Angel! That's mean!"
The silver-haired girl, Chloe, pouted as she clutched Kkamang tightly to her chest. Her tiny fingers, tangled with bizarre rainbow threads, stroked the black fur.
"Why do you keep trying to kill our Kkamang? When those mutts tried to bite us earlier, Kkamang protected me first!"
"Child, that's dangerous. Let it go now."
Even at Telliel's words, Chloe sniffled indignantly. "No way! You broke the roof, and now we're getting rained on... I'm super cold... and sleepy... but Kkamang's warm..."
A utterly one-dimensional, childlike whine. Telliel swallowed, pressing her brow in confusion at that absurdly innocent voice. Her gaze locked back on the black beast.
Am I imagining it...?
Her angelic instincts clearly screamed it wasn't a dog. But its appearance ran parallel to common sense and logic.
No abyssal magic. None at all.
If it were a demon or its servant, the unmistakable traces couldn't be hidden. If anything, its essence felt closer to a spirit or holy beast following nature's laws. Of course, no elemental power unique to spirits either—this thing was truly incomprehensible.
Telliel felt at a loss how to interpret this unknown beast. For the first time, even the noble wisdom of a 9th-class angel faced an intellectual void she couldn't even guess the origins of.
Kkamang tilted its head, staring up at Telliel intently. An abnormally red glow flickered through the gaps in its black fur.
"Um, Angel? See? Kkamang's a good puppy. It didn't even lunge. It's just a poor little doggy..."
Elia's desperate persuasion skimmed past Telliel's ears. Should she rend that grotesque shell with her cross-flame sword right now? Or trust the saintess's instincts?
Suddenly, Telliel's pupils spasmed.
"Wait... you..."
Why had she only realized it now? The horror wasn't just that malformed black beast. The silver-haired girl cradling it—she was the core of the blasphemy, the heart of darkness.
The moment her eyes tangled with Chloe's strangely unfocused purple ones, Telliel felt razor-sharp frost scrape over her soul. An overwhelming chill, as if her heart had frozen solid.
...What is that child?
These beings before her utterly defied the laws of the earthly realm and the radiant heavens. Telliel moistened her parched lips.
This is beyond my level. I mustn't engage recklessly.
Probing their true nature rashly was dangerous. The proper course was to report this ominous air to the majestic seraphim first. She had to relay it to the heavens immediately!
With resolve hardened, Telliel lowered her heavy eyelids. A sacred resonance rippled from her soul's core.
Oh radiant heavens. This is 9th-class angel Telliel, bearing a message.
"Oh radiant heavens..."
⟨ Prayer Interrupted ⟩
Just as she drew the noble heavenly tongue to her lips—
SHUT^YOUR*$&%MOUTH!@
A grotesque rupture slammed into what should have been pure silver-white within her. Blood-red letters, undecipherable by reason, cruelly scraped her optic nerves.
Telliel's eyes flew wide in horror. Unbidden, the rundown orphanage scenery crumbled like a sandcastle, and the world desaturated.
She blinked. Her vision filled with overwhelming voids of white and black. In the silence stripped of color, light, even sound, one woman stood.
A seductive female form draped in a pitch-black mermaid dress that clung smoothly to her curves. A freakish garment unseen in the Argentia Empire. Over her shoulder hung a rectangular leather bag with cold metal chains—practical and alien, nothing like the ornate ones noble ladies of the empire carried.
The woman approached soundlessly. A wide-brimmed vintage hat cast deep shadows over her face. Her sharp nose and flushed red lips were breathtakingly alluring, but the shadowed eyes were pitch-black voids, as if painted over.
Suddenly, her gaze tightened like a noose. A pale, slender index finger slowly traced across the woman's red lips.
Silence.
The razor-edged command tore through Telliel's mind. She strained her sword-grip wrist to the breaking point.
Wh-who are you...? Abyss demon? Some otherworldly being? Reveal your—!
The scream ripping her throat was swallowed by silence.
"...?"
The shadow under the woman's hat lifted as she raised her head. Where a normal pair of eyes should be, hundreds of bloodshot, dripping wet eyeballs crammed the darkness.
Those countless gazes pierced Telliel's heart like arrows. Behind the woman, immense, moist flesh-masses beyond form writhed, gnawing at dimensions. Too vast for life. Ungodly for godhood—this world had no measure for it.
It was looking at her. Watching. Still watching.
The lightning recognition dropped Telliel's jaw slack.
"...!"
No scream was born.
—Swish.
The woman's pale fingertip sliced the air, seizing the angel's face. Ice-cold fingers zipped across her lips from right to left like closing a seal.
—Ziiip!
Telliel's lips mashed into her flesh and vanished.
A spike of vibration shredded her brain, crushing every nerve node. Telliel clawed the floor desperately, clutching her throat. Unspoken screams swirled silently inside her erased mouth.
Air choked off. Vision flashed. Just before reason snapped—
—Shwaaa!
Cold raindrops from the shattered roof slapped her cheek. Reality.
Telliel steadied her trembling body, gasping raggedly. She frantically pawed her face. Her mangled lips were intact.
"Hah...!"
"Angel? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Elia knelt closer, asking. Telliel lifted her head, face drained pale blue.
Dangerous. That horrific being couldn't stay near the next saintess. Duty and mission crushed her fear, forcing her lips open.
"Saintess...! That girl's tru—!"
Her voice erased. Frozen vocal cords left only hollow silence.
Why? How?
The more she tried to move her tongue, the tighter invisible thorny vines strangled her throat. Telliel's eyes bulged tearfully.
Impossible.
She couldn't warn even after seeing. Telliel realized: about the silver-haired girl, the dog. Everything she'd just seen and heard—she could never speak of to anyone.
That thing had imposed an absolute gag on her. The soul-etched shackles mocked her angelic will, stripping her right to speak.
"Angel?"
At Elia's question, Telliel bit her quivering lips forcibly. Cold sweat mixed with rain, dripping from her chin.
"N-no, it's... n-nothing. Ahem!"
A lazy, innocent whine sliced the heavy air.
"Siiiigh... Angel's acting so weird. Shaking and sweating all alone..."
Chloe sniffled, hugging Kkamang, rubbing her arms with thread-wrapped hands like a petulant child.
"The roof's broken and it's cold..."
Telliel's gaze hardened again toward that carefree voice's source. Behind the silver-haired girl, the rundown room's shadows writhed grotesquely, like tens of thousands of snakes entwined. A chilling certainty: that massive flesh-wall, those countless bloodshot eyes from moments ago, were still glaring at her from somewhere in those shadows.
Breath stifled. She couldn't stay in this horrific space one more second.
"B-be careful, Lady Elia! The world... hides things beyond comprehension..."
"Angel? What do you—"
"My time on earth is up! I'll take my leave!"
Like prey fleeing a predator, the angel shot upward through the rain and vanished.
The blue window floating in the air had been glitching and sparkling with their chatter nonstop. Super noisy. I wiggled my fingers and tilted my head.
"Ow... why won't this untangle?"
The toy from that Knot guy was fun, but it just wouldn't come undone from my hands. Oh well. The window had tons of text scrolling by so fast I couldn't read any. Probably just chit-chat.
Wonder why the angel suddenly went pale and bolted?
Did Kkamang's bark scare her? Yeah, our Kkamang's pretty intimidating.
"Anyway! Elia, that was awesome earlier!"
"Huh?"
I beamed innocently at Elia.
"You went boom! and blasted all the bad guys away in one shot!"
"Oh, that... I didn't mean to..."
Even with my praise, Elia collapsed, legs giving out. That was definitely some saintess talent or holy power, right? Her white cheeks were a mess of tears and rain.
"Y-yeah... Chloe. I'm glad. So glad..."
Elia replied in a trembling voice.
Shwaaaaa—
Whoa, cold! Freezing rainwater dripped straight onto my head through the hole the angel smashed.
"Uuuugh!"
"It's raining!"
The kids finally noticed they were soaked and yelled. Rain seeped into my clothes, making me shiver. Snot bubbled up.
"Uuu... Elia, I'm cold. Sleepy..."
I hugged Kkamang tighter. At least he was warm. We huddled under the orphanage roof's remaining cover with the other kids.
Annoying angel!
Good job scolding the bad guys, but now we're freezing. If I sleep like this, I'll definitely catch a cold and wake up all stuffy-nosed tomorrow.
A stuffy nose means food tastes bad!
Worrying. Oh wait, Elia's a saintess now! If I get sick, she'll heal me!
Dawn mist swallowed the rain's remnants, rising heavily. In the empire's spiritual heart, the top floor of Argentia Cathedral, a faint twitch crossed the wrinkled cheek of the aged Grand Archbishop as he stared at the ashen sky.
To the world's blind, it was just a stormy night passed. But those who staked their souls on the Lord's will sensed differently.
Across the Grand Archbishop's bloodshot retinas burned the thick imprint of absolute holy light that had torn through the frontier's damp darkness.
"Haa..."
A hot sigh escaped his dry lips. Wrinkled hands crushed the platinum four-pointed star on his chest.
—Creeeak!
The heavy oak door burst open. High priests in red robes rushed in, faces as grim as his. Ecstasy, shock, primal fear flushed their cheeks as they eyed each other.
"Your Holiness. Did you feel that soul tremor just now?"
The first to kneel broke the silence, panting.
"I did."
"...!"
"Not with fleshly eyes, but the fragments perceivable only through the Lord's granted... soul trajectories."
The Grand Archbishop spoke slowly, gaze fixed outside.
"Over that filthy, forsaken place, a blinding tsunami of pure white surged."
"A miracle, Your Holiness."
The priest's voice noticeably quivered.
"Just now, bishops in night vigil collapsed one after another, stigmata searing. Testimonies flood from priests and nuns: a new star descending over the shelterless as revelation!"
"Could it be, Your Holiness, these are..."
The Grand Archbishop turned slowly.
"Yes, your suspicions are correct. The Lord... has personally lowered His sword to this land."
Pale dawn light through stained glass shadowed his face. Ecstasy and rapture blazed in his eyes.
"At last, a new saintess has been born to this earth!"
"Ahh...!"
Silence gripped the office. Priests smashed foreheads to the floor in overwhelming joy, crying out.
"Radiant heavens, we thank You!"
"Rejoice!"
The Grand Archbishop seized the silver bell on the desk.
—Ding!
The clear chime like dew shook the cathedral's heavy air.
"Summon the inquisitors and archbishops at once."
Fierce zeal clung to his voice.
"We must bring the Lord's lamb here with all haste!"